


A Sailor's Song

by Fleurisse



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 00:51:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12144963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fleurisse/pseuds/Fleurisse
Summary: My mother and I were going through some files from my late grandfather today, and discovered that he and my grandmother had kept all the letters and things their grandchildren had ever written to them. We each have a file. Mine contained, in addition to the letters and cards I'd sent, a poem that I wrote when I was in my late teens. I was big into The Lord of the Rings at the time, and I think I had written this as a song for Arran, a Palladium elf bard character that I never got to play, to sing.The poem was lost to me along with our Mac Plus in the early 1990s. In spite of having written it as a teen, it isn't awful, so I thought I might post it here.





	A Sailor's Song

**Author's Note:**

> My mother and I were going through some files from my late grandfather today, and discovered that he and my grandmother had kept all the letters and things their grandchildren had ever written to them. We each have a file. Mine contained, in addition to the letters and cards I'd sent, a poem that I wrote when I was in my late teens. I was big into The Lord of the Rings at the time, and I think I had written this as a song for Arran, a Palladium elf bard character that I never got to play, to sing.
> 
> The poem was lost to me along with our Mac Plus in the early 1990s. In spite of having written it as a teen, it isn't awful, so I thought I might post it here.

There is a tale that goes about  
Among us sailors old  
Of Carpathiel, a sailorman,  
And this is how it’s told:

Carpathiel had a fine little ship,  
One o’ the finest ever seen.  
Her wood was all polished ‘til it shone like gold,  
And her sails had a bluish sheen.

She rode the swells like a dove in flight;  
She handled like a dream,  
And Carpathiel was proud of her,  
He called her his deep sea queen.

Well, Carpathiel set out one day  
At the tiller of his trim little ship  
And as she sliced cleanly through the waves,  
The sun glinted off her ‘sprit.

Nigh on three hours he sailed on,  
In search of he knew not what,  
But finally, the sailor felt  
That the air was unbearably hot.

Now, every good sailor knows  
That such heat runs before a storm,  
And sure enough, there evil black clouds  
A-gathered like a swarm.

Carpathiel swung the prow about  
But he could not get away,  
For the gods of the air and the gods of the sea  
Had decided they wanted to play.

And the waves rose high and crashed about  
And the wind, it started to scream,  
But Carpathiel fought with all his might  
To save his deep sea queen.

Alas! One wave did tower high  
And smash down on the ship  
And Carpathiel was knocked quite cold  
And out of her did slip.

And down and down and down he sank,  
To the fathomless depths below,  
Where wondrous creatures make their home,  
Where lie treasures only the gods can know.

And the shock of the cold did wake him up,  
But Carpathiel knew ‘twas too late  
For the gods of the air and the gods of the sea  
Seldom free those they choose to take.

But from the depths of that deepest blue  
Two arms came and caught him with ease,  
And he looked on their owner with wonder,  
For she was the Queen of the Seas.

Her lower half was that of a fish,  
Her flukes did bend with grace,  
All emerald green and cobalt blue…  
And then he looked at her face.

Her hair was a mass of golden foam,  
Her lips were coral in hue-  
But her eyes! Those eyes!  
They could pierce to your soul – a brilliant seawater blue.

She smiled down upon him then,  
And her smile was like the moon,  
And then she held him close and said,  
‘Fear not, you’ll be home soon.’

She sang to him her siren-song  
And he did fall asleep.  
And when he woke upon the land,  
All sadly did he weep.

Then he looked up and on the beach  
There, lying on her side, serene,  
With wood a-glowing and sails furled  
Was his faithful deep sea queen.

He pushed her out and jumped aboard;  
Her sails he freed to the breeze,  
For his heart was filled with a longing  
To find the Queen of the Seas.

Carpathiel sailed for many a year,  
A-flying before the breeze,  
But ne’er again did set his eyes  
Upon the Queen of the Seas.

And when he on his deathbed did lie,  
She sang once more for him,  
And the very last thing he e’er did say  
Was this, my gentlemen:

‘Her hair was a mass of golden foam,  
Her lips were coral in hue-  
But her eyes! Those eyes!  
I remember them best – a brilliant seawater blue.’


End file.
